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HON. S. S. BLAIR, OF PE 





Delivered in tlie House of Representatives, February 23, 1861. 





honorable gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Boteler] 
introduced his resolution changing the accus- 
tomed order of procedure by referring that por- 
tion of the President's message touching the 
troubles to a select committfee of thirty-three. If 
we had voted down the resolution, and all others 
of like character, we would have had before the 
public mind the naked issue, Union or disunion ; 
you would have almost instantly aroused from 
its profoundest depths the Union sentiment in 
the hearts of the people. To meet any great 
crisis like this, it is essential that the public 
spirit should be called forth ; but following in 
the footsteps of the Administration, which was 
without policy, without unity, struck with the 
paralysis of wavering resolution, and distracted 
by fears and timorous doubts, we failed in that 
important work 

A new issue has been made up — a false and 
distracting one ; not union or disunion ; but new 
guaranties to slavery or disunion. From that 
day, slavery has seemed almost to keep court 
within the temple of the nation; where, from far 
and near, men have come tb do her the reverence 
of right loyal liegemen. Propositions of great 
diversity in form, but nearly all looking to the 
national recognition of slavery, were showered 
upon us for miiuy days ; and the gentlemen from 
the disaffected States on the committee, as we 
are informed, after it had been determined that 
slavery should not have a roving commission 
over Mexico and Central America, refused fur- 
ther official intercourse with their colleagues; 
who, themselves divided and distracted, have 
presented a number of reports, no one of which, 
it appears, had the sanction of the majority. 
Thus it is, sir, that in this great ejiort to win 
over the enemies of the Union, we have suc- 
ceeded only in distracting its friends. 

It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that we have not 
yet grappled with the living issue that is before 
us; we have been telling- the people that this 
question of disunion mjist be looked squarely in 
the face ; and yet the House and the Senate dnd 
the Administration have, up to within one week 
of our adjournment, been looking at it askance, 
while we endeavor to reopen a discussion already 
exhausted and irrevocably closed by the solemn 
verdict of the people. Sir, the only question that 



The House having under consideration the re- 
port from the select committee of thirty-three — 

Mr. BLAIR said : 

Mr. Speaker: There seems to me a strange 
anomaly in our politics. In the clashing opin- 
ions of these troublous times, all appear to unite 
in praise of the Government of the United States ; 
with one consent its structure is pronounced to 
be better adapted to the spirit of our people than 
any that could be devised. This is the testimony 
which an experience of three quarters of a cen- 
tury bears to the wisdom of its framers, and 
which we have been accustomed to expect would 
be strengthened as years increase. But while 
these encomiums are on the lips of all, we find 
that one party, in open rebellion against its au- 
thority, is organized to destroy it by force of 
arms ; another seeks to change its Constitution ; 
and yet a third threatens to revolt, unless it shall 
be altered to suit their views ; while a fourth, in 
opposition to all, demands its preservation and 
peroetuity as our fathers made it. The enemies 
of the Government, bold, cunning, and impetu- 
ous, have usurped the powers of the people in 
six of the States. They have by force, and by 
the basest treachery that ever stained the earth, 
become possessed of property of the nation, pur- 
chased at a cost of over seven million dollars, for 
the common defence of all. They have taken our 
guns and turned their fire on the flag of the na- 
tion, thus far, with perfect impunity. In the face 
of these dire events, what a spectacle do we pre- 
sent to the world ? Will the generations that are 
to succeed us believe that at such a time we sat 
out a whole winter, trying how far we might go 
to comply with the demands of traitors, and what 
new securities we might devise for the protection 
and spread of human bondage ? 
. Sir, when we came here in December, I hoped 
to seethe patriots of the North and South stand- 
ing together in firm concord, and uniting their 
counsels for'the preservation of the Union in its 
integrity. I thought they might all agree to pro- 
vide whatsoever legislation might be deemed 
needful for the prompt and vigorous execution 
of the laws ; and was prepared, and am still nre- 
pared, to join hands with every man willing to 
avo'.v his unqualified devotion to the country. 
Animated by this hope, I was pained when the 



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any man can ask this day is : shall the will of a 
EGajarity be successfully thwarted by an orj^an- 
ized conspiracy in the minority? The problem 
which is uppermost in the minds of the people, 
all experience shows, must be first solved, before 
they will direct their attention to other less in- 
teresting investigations. It is a law — which, if 
but obeyed, will lead to success— to seize first 
upon the greatest good that is within our reach, 
and to combat first the greatest evil that en- 
counters our progress. 

The people are at this time more deeply con- 
cerned in establishing the fact before the nations 
of the world that the Government of the United 
States is a real power on the earth, than iu ad- 
justing the details of policy. It is no time now 
to be higgling with the demands of faction in he 
State, when faction has drawn the sword against 
the State itself. Faction must be put down. 
Treason must first be subdued before its pretexts 
can be safely considered. We cannot dally with 
it but at the peril of the nation's honor, which 
is the nation's life. It asserts the principle that 
the people of any one State may, iu the exercise 
of a riglit springing from the Constitution, at any 
time, with or without cause, withdraw from the 
Union, and erect in our midst a foreign indepen- 
dent government, such as they may choose to 
adopt, whether it be a republic, a constitutional 
monarchy, or au absolute despotism. If this be 
true, then, we must bow to the necessity of ac- 
knowledging it with becoming grace. Bitter as 
may be the cup, we must drink it to the dregs. 
We must give up every fort and arsenal in the 
seceding States, take down the stars and stripes, 
and salute with respect the Palmetio, the Peli- 
can, and the Rattlesnake. If secession is consti- 
tutional, then, sir, we are bound, by our oaths, 
to recognise the.ic States as foreiga sovereignties 
as fully as we recognise the sovereignty of Eng- 
land or of France. But, sir, if there is no such 
right, we cannot, we dare not, recognise it, or 
even seem to recognise it, however slightly or 
obliquely. 

TUe right of secession is a political theory of 
modern growth. It looks upon the Constitution 
as but a league or compact between independent 
States, and that the Government which it estab- 
lishes is but an agent of the several States in- 
trusted with thb execution of certain povvers, 
which may be revoked and annulled by any 
State, as tlie interest, convenience, or whims of 
its people may determine; and that, after such 
revocation, the State resumes its original inde- 
pendent sovereignty. Its first fundamental error 
is, that the States composing this Confederacy 
ever were in possession of separate independent 
sovereignty. When South Carolina sent her del- 
egates to Congress, she was still a colony of 
Great Britain, never having assumed to exercise 
the high powers of a sovereign ; and her dele- 
gates, like the delegates of all the other colonies, 
met only to consult for the public safety, but 
found the pressure of events so strong that they 
were of necessity compelled, as united colonie.^, 
to assume the powers of a sovereign nation. It 
was as united colonies that sovereignty was as- 
sumed, by which they were able to vindicate the 



.■B4.3 

independence of the United States. This league, 
or Confederacy, though itself declared to be per- 
petual, not being a Government which operated 
on the people directly, but upon the States, gave 
place to the Constitution, which established a 
Government, net a league. It was established 
by the people, in precisely the same way that 
they established their Stale gavernments; and 
in all matters confided to its jurisdiction by the 
Constitution, it claims the obedience of the citi- 
zen in the same way that the State Constitution 
claims his obedience in all matters within the 
jurisdiction of the State. Each government is 
supreme within its own sphere ; so that neither 
can absolv.' the citizen from his obligations to 
the other. The sacred instrument itself declares 
its character as a Constitution for the people of 
the United States. It was not ordained by the 
deputies of sovereign States, as is professed by 
the Montgomery constitution. But the fact that 
it operates upon the people in the several States 
no more lessens its force as a Government for 
the whole people, than does the division of the 
people of a State into county and township or- 
ganizations detract from the obligation of the 
citizens of each of them to obey the State Con- 
stitution. 

From the foundation of the Government till 
recently, the idea was never entertained that our 
Constitution was but a league of States. About 
the first resolution that was adopted by the con- 
vention which formed it, declared " that- a na- 
tional Government ought to be established, con- 
sisting of a supreme legislature, judiciary, and 
executive," and that resolution was fully carried 
out in the great work of the convention. And 
it is for us to say whether it shall be preserved, 
or whether it shall go down, ignominiously, at 
the biddiug of South Carolina and her confede- 
rates. It is for us to saj' whether its foundation 
is on a rock, or on sand or stubble. Its supre- 
macy must be preserved by a firm and just exe- 
cution of the laws in every portion of the country. 
It must not be enervated, and thereby dishonor- 
ed, by the faintest actual or implied recognition 
of this heresy of secession. 

But others tell us that the only effectual way 
to preserve the Government is by a compromise. 
Now, there are thousands of people who teil us 
to compromise, who seem to attach no definite 
idea to the word. When reminded that Con- 
gress can only execute its powers by the enact- 
ment of laws ior the remedy of evils, without 
telling us what particular lineofaction we should 
take, they advise us to " do something." No- 
body seems to know what particular " some- 
thing" it is wise to do. The country is actually , 
in a panic. Some persons, alarmed by unusual 
events, without waiting to take counsel of reason, 
would madly rush on almost any extraordinary , 
course ; they know not, and care not what. We 
all remember how the whole country was panie- 
stricken by John Brown's lawless invasion at 
Harper's Ferry; or, rather, how it was seized 
upon by desperate politicians to alarm the fears 
of the people ; uuder the influence of panic, ex- 
traordinary measures were resorted to, which all 
now admit to have been unwise, and which. 



ultimately, cost the State of Virfjinia more money 
to watch Brown, at Chavlestown, than it cost 
the British Government, for the same length of 
time, to watch Napoieon on the Island of St. 
Helena. These moyemeats, aided by the fierce 
attacks in Congress on the Republican party, as 
being responsible, produced such a state of alarm, 
that ^the Union meetings called on the Repub- 
licans to disband their organizations, and " do 
sometbittg " for the salvation of the Union. But, 
instead of yielding, the Republicans, in the 
strength which conscious rectitude imparts, 
proceeded to the prooer business of legislation, 
and convinced the country that a party which, 
standing by its principles, was able to govern 
itself, was fit, likewise, to govern the country. 
AVe let the panic die out ; and our fidelity to 
principle has been rewarded by the confidence 
of the country. And now, again, a mad and 
foolish panic is diligently nourished, under which 
six States — from South Carolina to Louisiana — 
have been forced out of the Union by the same 
alarmists. Has the world ever witnessed such 
an exhibition of wicked folly? 

Some of these States, since the origin of the 
Government, and all of them, since their organi- 
zation into State Governments, have enjoyed the 
advantages of a Union, to which they are in- 
debted for whatever of consequence they pos- 
sess, and yet, in an hoir of unreasoning mad- 
ness, have levelled the forces of destruction 
against that Union itself. 

They seize upon its public buildings, upon its 
treasury, and appropriate to their own uses the 
hospital which the benevolence of the Govern- 
ment had dedicated to its disabled seamen. 
Montesquieu has a chapter of three lines in his 
Spirit of Laws, to illustrate his idea of despotic 
power. He tells us — 

"Whon tho savages of Louisiana are dosirous of fruit, 
they cut thti tree to the root and gather the fruit ; this is au 
emijiem of despotic government." 

While the illustration does justice to the sel- 
fishness of despotism, it reminds us, in the light 
of the events I have mentioned, that many of the 
more enlightened successors of the aboriginals of 
Louisiana have not much improved on the wis- 
dom of their predecessors. Do they, with any 
reason, expect to gather and long to enjoy the 
fruits of Union — independence, security, and 
strength — by destroying the tree which bears 
them V No, sir. All man everj'where pronounce 
them mad. They have been hurried by their 
leaders into excesses and troubles for which there 
is but one remedy, and Vi^hich, if we will only be 
equal to our duty and possess our hearts in pa- 
tience, will certainly be applied ; and that is, the 
expulsion of the conspiring leaders from power 
by the certain return of the people to reason and 
reflection. The men who sacrifice the public 
order to their ambition, will in turn become the 
victims of the very disorders which they have 
brought about. If history has its logic, it has its 
avenging justice too. 

But shall the Government do nothing? Well, 
sir, I think there is one branch of the Govern- 
ment has been already used to do a good deal. 
He^ids of Departments, sworn to maintain the 



Constitution and the laws of the United States, 
have openly and secretly used the opportunities 
of office for the overthrow of the country. Dis- 
graceful engagements have been made with men 
in arms against the Government, to leave the 
strongholds of the country in a defenceless con- 
dition. Inasmuch, however, as confidence in the 
integrity of that arm of the Government has been 
improved of late, let us hope that the future will 
show it to be well founded. But shall not Con- 
gress enact some laws relative to slavery, which 
can be called a compromise, with these men, in 
order to bring them back to (lie Union? Bring 
them back ! Sir, they are not out of the Union. 
Their paper resolves are nullities ; and when you 
thus recognise South Carolina and other States 
as out of the Union, you admit that its laws have 
no force within their limits. Contrive as you 
please to devise compromises for what you call 
reconstruction, and as a condition precedent to 
them all, you are confronted with this humilia- 
ting concession which y()U s-re forced to make — 
that South Carolina rightfully disgraced your 
ILig, and that she may do so again at any future 
time. Sir, in this hour of peril I turn a willing 
ear to the voices of departed patriots. I listen 
submissively to one of the wisest, greatest, and 
noblest of men. When South Carolina rebelled, 
in 1833, because she disliked the tariff laws, John 
Quincy Adams, of the Committee on Manufac- 
tures, in his report, says : 

" The subscribers believe, therefore, that tlie ground as- 
sumed by the Soutli Caroiiua couveutiou for usurping the 
sovc'reiyu and limitless power of the people of that State, 
to dictate the laws of the Union, and prostrnte tho legisla- 
tive, executive, and judicial authority of the United States, 
is as destitute of foundation as the forms and substance of 
their iirocecdings are arrogant, overbearing, tyrannical aM 
oppressive. They believe that ono particle of compromise 
with that usurped power, or of concession to its pretensions, 
woulil be a heavy calamity to the people of the whole Union, 
and to none more than to the people of South Carolina them- 
selves. That such concessions by Congress would bo a de- 
reliction of their highest duties to the country, and directly 
lead to the Uual and inevitable dissolution of the Union. 
With the usurpations of the South Carolina convention, 
there can bo no possible compromise. They must conquer , 
or they must fall." 

Oh, that the statesmen of that day had all 
been true to the principles of Mr. Adams's report 
and General Jackson's proclamation, and had 
consulted the future of the Republic, rather than 
their temporary quiet ! A compromise tariff was 
passed to bring back South Carolina, and she 
was taught that rebellion was a wise policy to 
maintain her supremacy in the Union. That 
compromise has brought us unmixed evil ; but 
I hope that patience and fortitude will enable us 
now to avoid the mistake which was then made ; 
for I do believe that, if you bring her back by a 
compromise, she will, before six months, rebel 
against the specific duties of the pending tariff 
bill, if it^hould become a law. Slavery is thought 
to be somewhat weaker now than formerly, and 
the bargain proposed is, if we will give our 
solemn pledge to strengthen and perpetuate it, 
we will be paid for the wear and tear of princi- 
ple by the return of the " confederates" into the 
Union, with the right to leave it again whenever 
they please. 

But the majority of those who urge conces- 



, fion, admit that the cotton States, having as- 
::ameii an open attitude of rebellion against the 
Constitution and the laws, compromise with them 
is inadmissible without dishonor; yet, unless 
concession be made to the border slaveholding 
States, the same causes which operated to drive 
off the former, will, in a very short time, pro- 
duce like results in the latter. 

But if a compromise to bring back the seceded 
States is inadmissible, because it would amount 
to a recognition of the doctrine of secession, does 
not the same objection apply to a compromise 
made in obedience to a threat of secession ? If 
one is dishonorable, is not the other equally so? 
There is scarcely anything within the compass 
of our powers to do, not involving a sacrifice of 
orincipie, that the noble Union men of these 
States would ask, to which I would not be in- 
clined to respond as a brother. I know their he- 
roism and their fortitude, and the dashing gal- 
lantry with which they have swept the field 
against haughty insolence and arrogance, which 
thought to crush them at a blow. But hearts so 
noble as theirs will not, and cannot, insist that 
we should sacrifice our convictions of duty to the 
country in this time of its trial. Rather than do 
this,' I believe they will buckls on their armor 
afresh, and march to the higher and the final 
conflict. The strength which their victory over 
immediate disunion has imparted to them will 
bring within their power its more insidious, and 
therefore more dangerous enemy — conditional 
secession. They have had their ovation ; let 
them arise to their triumph. In my judgment, 
any measure-j of compromise are a concession, 
not to the patriots of those States, but to the 
usurpers themselves, by which they will be ena- 
bled to return to power. 

But, sir, what is it that is demanded of us? I 
notice that the President has preferred the charge 
that the people of the North have, by their 
presses and their pulpits, spoken evil of slavery, 
and that pictorial representations unfavorable to 
it have been scattered over the country. Now, 
Mr. Speaker, as to the pictures, I have heard 
that a long time ago they were sent into the 
Southern States. As the President has always 
been a swift witness for slavery, his antiquarian 
researches iuto the forgotten events of the past, 
that he might bring forth some apology or ex- 
cuse for treason, is calculated to excite rather 
our curiosity than our surprise. There may have 
been pictures — they are not unusual weapons of 
warfare in political encounters ; I cannot tell 
how much the President himself may be indebted 
10 their instrumentality in the canvass of 185G. 
'I'hey were extensively used by Granville Sharp 
••iud Clarkson, in their contests with slavery in 
England, and the good La Fayette, afraid to 
trust the cause of freedom alone to the eloquence 
■ of Mirabeau, lest its sacredness might be sullied 
by the "Ambition of the orator, distributed five 
nundred pictures himself among the members of 
ihe French Assembly ; a copy of that picture is 
the only one of the kind that I have ever seen in j 
my life, and that came from Mr. Jefferson's libra- ; 
ry. I do, therefore, truly think that a revolution , 
must indeed be " artificial," which includes i 



among the evils to be remedied a grievance like 
this. 

We are told, however, by the gentleman from 
Kentucky, [.Mr. Simms,] that even if we should 
adopt every propoaitionfor adjustment yet made, 
yet, unless we "put down" all publications and 
speeches at the North against slavery, there can 
be no Union. We are not told how we are to 
put them down. I suppose it would perhaps be 
agreeable to return to the old Spanish policy of 
subjecting every manuscript of book or pamphlet 
to a board of licensers before publication, and 
allow nothing to be printed and read but what 
they approve by their mark; somewhat in the 
same way that leather and other commod ties 
are admitted to the market by the official brand 
of the inspectors. But, Mr. Speaker, whether a 
censorship of the press, or a system of pains and 
penalties, be desired, if the constitutional guar- 
antee of its freedom must be destroyed as a sac- 
rifice for the Union, it will never be done. It 
underlie^ our whole system of constitutional lib- 
erty, and may be said almost to compose it. 

It is further charged that the Republican party 
design to abolish slavery in the States where it 
exists, and we must therefore consent to an 
amendment to the Constitution, putting it ex- 
pressly out of the power of Congress. The Con- 
stitution ought not to be altered, except for the 
gravest reasons, much less to meet an evil that 
has no existence. The charge that the Repub- 
lican party claims such a power, or intends to 
usurp it,- is untrue. I have never known a Re- 
publican who did not consider an attempt by 
Congress to interfere with it in the States, as a 
usurpation to be resisted. Congress has no more 
power over the subject of slavery in the States 
than it has over the State laws relating to the 
descent of lands, or any other State institution. 
We have said so in our platforms, our addresses 
to the people, and in our votes given here 
unanimously at this session on the following res- 
olution: 

" Itesolved, That neither C<)Dgro.=is nor the people or gov- 
ernmeut of any non-slaveholdiiig uStatehas the coaslitutioual 
right to legiiiiite upon, or interfere with, slaverj- in any 
slavchoUiug State in the Union." 

Our opponents know that we will live up to our 
pledges, and therefore fear that the p'c-ople who 
have been deceived by their misrepresentations 
will very naturally conclude that they are not to be 
believed hereafter. They cannot have my vote to 
help them out of that difficulty. The South has 
every security in the Constitution already, with- 
out the proposed amendment. We have done 
everything that men can do to remove apprehen- 
sions on this point. An Athenian ambassador, 
in treaty with the Laced;emonians, after many 
propositions had been considered, said: "There 
can be but one bond and security that will bind 
us. You must show that we have so much in our 
hands that you cannot hurt us if you would." 
You have that bond and security. Why, then, 
did the committee report a remedy for an evil 
which can only have a place in the wildest fancy. 
With regard to slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, where Congress has the unquestionable power 
to abolish it, they say that, inasmuch as no one 



proposes to interfere with it, they deem it useless 
to report any amendmeDt. I think it not quite 
consistent in the committee to refuse an amend- 
ment where it is possible to interfere with slavery, 
on the ground that nobody proposes to do so, and 
at the same time to bring in an amendment to 
provide against not only what no one proposes to 
do, but what, if desired, it is impossible to do. 

But gentlemen tell us that dematrogues in the 
South, by persistently misrepresenting our pur- 
poses to the people, have brought them to be- 
lieve that it is our purpose to abolish slavery. I 
am bound to suppose that the oppone-jts of this 
class of politicians in the South have always 
known these representations to be untrue. They 
have had all the evidence which any man capa- 
ble of thinking could ask. I must presume, like- 
wise, that they have, with the earnestness of sin- 
cere men, brought this evidence to the notice of 
the people; so that, wherever the poison of 
falsehood has been scattered, the antidote, truth, 
has followed. Now, if the friends of truth have 
done their whole duty in this respect, to the 
Southern people, I would be very sorry to sup- 
pose that a majority of them continue to believe 
a falsehood. It would be evidence to my mind 
that they would rfot believe though one rose 
from the dead, and that they were given over to 
an utter inability to see the truth, though it 
blazed around them as the light of the sun at mid- 
day. If an amendment to the Constitution could 
be carried, it would not open their eyes; for the 
demagogues would tell them, as they tell them 
now, that we care nothing about the Constitu- 
tion, and we only amend it to blind them, that 
we might the more easily accomplish our pur- 
poses ; and if it should be lost in any four States, 
and consequently not adoptf^d, then they would 
aver the evidence of the design they charge upon 
us to be conclusive. Let us not, I entreat, then, 
permit a rash hand to be laid upon the ark of our 
safety, lest for the error we may be smitten with 
greater evils than we design to cure. 

Another proposition is before us, which was 
first brought lorward under the auspicious name 
of the distinguished Senator from Kentucky, and 
called a comj)romise. The offer is to revive the 
Missouri line of aG*^ 30^, and extend it to Califor- 
nia, and to exclude slavery from all territory 
north of the line, and to protect and secure it in 
all.territory, " now owned or which may be here- 
after acquired" by the United States; and this 
astounding proposition is to be incorporated in 
the Constitution as an amendment, to become 
the supreme law of the land, high above all 
Congresses, courts, and Territori.al Legislatures. 
A superhcial glance at it might lead one to sup- 
pose that it contains a concession to freedom. 
The territory, however, which it proposes thus 
to consecrate, is already free. Kansas, the hrst 
fruits of the bloody strife between freedom and 
slavery, inaugurated by the repeal of the Mis- 
souri compromise, has already been welcomed 
into the councils of the Union. She is free by 
her patience, her sutferings, her endurance, and 
by the valor of her sons. Had she gone down 
under the victorious heel of slavery, not only 
her doom was sealed, but that of every rood of 



national territory to the north and west of her 
limits. But the same tide of free emigration 
which gave her population needful for a State, 
has peopled Nebraska, already organized, and 
Dakota, with her sister Territories, yet await ng 
organization from this Congress. And these are 
the Territories which the Crittenden amendment 
magnanimously devotes to freedom. Sir, they 
need no Wilmot proviso, either in their organic 
acts or in the Constitution, to preserve them to 
freedom. 

Tnere is no virtue, then, in this part of the 
proposed compromise, except that which is born 
of necessity. We neither wish it nor ask it ; 
why, then, is it offered ? It is but a cloak to cover 
the nakedness of the attempt to devote the free 
territory southward to slavery. Lef the people 
mark it, aod reflect on the humiliation to which 
they are invited : 

" That tho territory now held, or that- may hereafter be 
acquired by the United States, shall be divided by a line 
Ircuu east to west ou the p;u'allel of 36'' 30', north latitude. 
Thiit ill all the territory south of said line, involuntary ser- 
vitude, us it now exists in the Suites south of Mason and 
Dixon's hue, is hereby recognised, and shall be sustained 
and protected by all the departments of the territorial gov- 
ernments. " 

The country "now held" south of the line 
to which this amendment is applica'ile, is the 
Territory of New Mexico, .organized by one of 
the compromise measures of 1850, and which was 
extended by the act of 1853, so as to cover the 
country called Arizona, witli the right of admis- 
-ion as a State, with or without s avery, as its 
constitution might provide. 

The right, however, was expressly reserved to 
Congress to re eal any 1:.- w which might be passed 
by the Territorial Legi.slature. No oae will be 
so creduloui as to suppose that this extended 
barren waste called New Mexico, where in ten 
years they have only been able to introduce about 
twenty s av.s, is the field in which this extraor- 
dinary constitutional amendment is expected to 
operate. The real intention is to apply the pro- 
vision to lilexico, or such pjrtions of her domin- 
ions as we may hereafter acquire by treaty or 
acts of aggression. She has io g been a weak 
and distracted nation, owing to the cause that 
now, for the first time in our history, begins to 
show itself with sufficient force to disturb the 
general tranquillity of the country — refusal of a 
defeated party to submit tj the will of a ma- 
jority. 

Sii', this Chamber has been ringing with ap- 
peals to the Republican members to come for- 
ward, in a magnanimous and conciliatory spirit, 
and cast away the Chicago platform. These ap- 
peals are made by gentlt-men without a smile 
on their faces. They seem to be agonized at the 
thought that we hesitate to abandon our platform 
and adopt theirs. 

By what right do you assume to charge us 
with the elevation of a party platform above the 
country, when you yourselves do claim that your 
platform is of so much more value than the Union 
that unless you get it foisted into the Constitu- 
tion of the country you will trample her hag in 
the dust. You plunder the public moneys and 
cry out, "give us justice;" you seize the forts 



a 



and .nrsc-nals, and then preach conciliation ; you 
turn the guns which yoa have taken on an un- 
armed steamer in the service of the Cloverument, 
and then with extended hands implore ns to 
rise to the height of this great argument, far 
above the Chicago platform. Sir, if we could 
cast off our principles as easily as old garments, 
it were low-thoughtcd baseness to yield our man- 
hood on such dishonorable terms. 

Kut I would have no oas believe I would yield 
to these demands, if^they could honorably be 
considered at all. Candor aud frankness, I ven- 
ture to say, are virtues as essential in public af- 
fairs as in private, notwithstanding the maxim of 
Louis XII prevails to a great extent, that " he 
who knows not how to dissemble knows not how 
to govern.'' Regarding Uie right of one man to 
have property iu another as being in derogation 
of the law of nature, and that wherever the right 
exists it must depend exclusively on the local 
law, I believe^and that belief is much older than 
the Chicago platform — that the moment the slave 
is transported beyond the limits of hi^ State, to 
a, St^te or Territory where no such law exists, 
he becomes as free as his former master. H)w 
then, sir, can I,,or any one believing this, con- 
sent to a law of Congress or a ne v Constitution, 
that will seize that man thus made free and con- 
vert him iato a chattel? Twelve years ago the 
Union was threatened, because the people of Cal- 
ifornia thought proper to seek admission as a 
State with a constitution forbidding slavery. 
Senator Dams piesented this identical demand, 
as his ultimatum, in these words : 

"That my position may go forth to the country in fho 
Fame culuiaus that convey the sentiments of ihe Senator Irom 
Kentuclcy, I here assert that never will I lake less than the 
Missouri compromise lino oxtonded to the Pacilic ocean, 
with the specilic recognition of the right to hold slaves in 
the territory below that line ; and that, before such Terri- 
tories arc admitted into the Union as Slates, slaves may be 
taken there from any of the United Stales at the option of 
their owners." 

To this demand for mere congressional recog- 
nition of slavery south of the line, Mr. Clay re- 
plied in this memorable language, so familiar to 
us all : 

" I am'extremely sorry to hear the Senator from Missis- 
sipi)i say that he requires first the extension of the Mis.souri 
compromise line to the Pacific, and also that ho is not satis- 
fied with that, but requires, if I understood him correctly, a 
positive provision for the admission of slavery south of that 
line. And now, sir, coming from a slave State, as I do, I 
owe it to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject, to 
say, that no earthly power could induce mo to vote for a 
specific measure for the introduction of slavery where it had 
not bclbre existed, either south or north of that line. Coming 
from a sUive State, as I do, it is my solemn, deliberate, ami 
well-matured determination, that no power — no earthly 
ljf)wer — shall compel me to vole for the positive introduction 
of slavery, cither south or north of that line." 

These noble words of the great orator of Ken- 
tucky will live in the memory of men, and pre- 
serve his fame in the ages that are to come after 
us, if all else that he has said should be forgot- 
ten. But I am told that Pennsylvania is con- 
servative, and has never been so devoted to this 
abstraction — as it is the fashion to call it — that 
her Representatives might not, consistently with 
her views, prove false to it. She is a conserva- 
tive State, and for that reason they traduce her 
who would represent her infidelity to principle. 



She will have her Reprcsentitlves conserve, in 
legislation, every good principle which she has 
ever avowed. She was conservative of justice, 
humanity, .■^.nd political consistency, when, in 
1'784, she put slavery in the way of ultimate ex- 
tinction within her borders by an act of her 
Legislature, which tells us — as well by its pro- 
visions as by its thrilling pre.amble — how she 
loved liberty and hated bondage. She recorded 
her sentiments again, in 1819, on the question 
of slavery in the Territories, and those gentle- 
men who suppose that we are only standing 
on the Chic.igo platform, will do well to look 
at this record. We are told the platform was 
not made in view of these troubles, or she 
would have repudiated it.. Well, sir, the re- 
solve which I am about to cite was no party 
platform, made in time of public quiet to catch 
votes, but the solemn declaration of her Legis- 
lature, at a time not unlike the present. The 
first conflict on the Mi.ssouri question was in 
the winter of 1810, and it shook the very foun- 
dation of the Union; but the people of Penn- 
sylvania, with one heart and voice, protested 
against the admissiou of Missouri, with a slave 
constitution; and the Legislature resolved against 
the admission of the State, unless slavery 
should be prohibited. From its preamble, I 
extract the following: 

" A measure was ardently supported in the last Congress, 
and will, probably, bo as caruestiy urged during the exist- 
ing session of that body, wiiich has a probable tendency to 
impair the political relations of the several Stales ; which is 
calculated to mar the social happiness of thj present and 
future generations ; and which, jf adopted, would impede 
the march of humunity and freedom through the world, and 
would atlix and perpetuate an odious stain upon the present 
race. A measure, iu brief, which proposes to spread the 
crimes and cruellies of slavery from the banks of the iiis- 
sissippi to the shores of the Pacific. 

"The Senate and House of Represent<atives of Pennsyl- 
vania, therefore, cannot but deprecate any departure from 
the humane and enlightened policy pursued not only by the 
illustrious Congress of 1787, but by their successors, with- 
out exception. They are persuaded that, to open the fer- 
tile regions of the West to a servile race, would tend to in- 
crease their numbers beyond all past example ; would open 
a new and steady market for the lawless venders of human 
flesh, and would render all schemes for obliterating this 
most foul blot upon the .tUnericau character useless and un- 
availing." 

In disregard of these sentiments, some of her 
Representatives, the next winter, voted for the 
admission of the State with the compromise line; 
and she showed her conservatism by letting them 
all stay at home after that. Still conservative, 
she stood by the Missouri compromise, though 
distasteful to her; and when, in 1854, that com- 
promise was abrogated, she showed her appreci- 
ation of the condu';t of those who betrayed her 
principles by burying them iu a common political 
grave. And now, sir, we are asked to abrogate 
the compromise of 1850. Let those who say 
Pennsylvania would make one compromise to 
destroy another keep in mind her history, or she 
will hold them in fierce remembrance. 

The recent attempt of her Senators to move her 
from her moorings will fail. If ij; were an effort 
to mislead her people by the artful contrivances 
under which politicians ordinarily endeavor to 
screen their departure from principle, a tempo- 
rary success might be possible; but when all dis- 



guises are thrown off, and the naked, unveiled 
word of comraaud is given that they must not 
only abandon their "feelings" but their " princi- 
jjles," it will not be obeyed. No hopes of gain, 
or fears of loss, will change the determination of 
her people. You may set forth in order all the 
past glories, the present blessings, and future 
prospects of Union, on the one hand, and on the 
other you may marshal the horrors of its violent 
rupture, and she v/ill still rel'use to set her seal 
to such a covenant as this. There is nothing in 
the proposition which would entitle it even to a 
respectful consideralion but the excellent char- 
acter of its first mover. 

I have been surprised, Mr. Speaker, to learn 
that persons who profess a desire for a lasting 
peace should be found the advocates of this pro- 
ject. The honorable gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. 
CoRwiN,] in the remarks which he made on 
bringing forward his report, saw the dangers so 
clearly himself thoat he simply said everybody 
knew what would be the effect. I wish he had 
thought proper to say more on that point. He 
elaborated upon the absurdity of the apprehen- 
sion which was supposed to be entertained by. 
many, that the Republican party designed to 
change the relation of master and slave in the 
States ; everybody knew that ; but then, how 
much better did we know it after he had spoken 
of it? Sir, if this amendment shall be proposed 
for adoption by the States, it will provoke an 
agitation on ths subject of slavery which will 
cast into the shade all that has gone before it. 
The moral, political, and social aspect of slavery 
will be the theme of every tongue; the storms of 
1820, 1836, 1850, and 1854, will be but as the 
strains of a lullaby compared with the howlings 
of the tempest. And then for the result. K it 
should be rejected by more than one-fourth of 
the States, as it would b?, the same influences 
now at work on the disrupaon of the Union, if 
quieted by this measure until that time, would 
be revived with more power for mischief. But 
if it should be adopted, what then ? As the Con- 
stitution now stands, it is in the North sustained 
because it is a free Constitution; so that no man 
can justly say he is responsible at the bar of con- 
science for the bondage of any human being in a 
slave State? But let such aprovision once go into 
the Constitution, and the people realize the fact 
that t^e independence of these United States — 
which, as Mr. Jefferson said, was won, not for 
our rights as American citizens only, but for the 
rights of human nature — has been perverted to 
the open and avowed sanction of chattel slavery, 
and I see clearly enough you would not have 
peace. You now talk of destroying the Govern- 
ment on a supposed point of honor. Do you sup- 
pose a point of conscience would be less likely to 
breed discontent ? 

I have a word to say of what is called the bor- 
der State proposition. It proposes that when, 
in any sixty thousand square miles of territory, 
south of the liue 36° 30^, there shall be found a 
population equal to the number required for a 
Representative in the House of Representatives, 
it shall bo admitted as a State ; but that, in the 
mean time, neither Congress nor a Territorial 



Legislature shaM abolisri. or ^Jrohib it. sluvGiy. This 
project is bottomed on an assumpnon that sla- 
very has a constitutional right in the Territories. 
It assumes what is without warrant ii any line 
or word of the Constitution, and in opposition to 
the whole current of legislative and judicial au- 
thority of the Government from 1787 till a very 
recent period, that whenever we acquire terri- 
tory, and before its admission as a State into the 
Union, a slaveholder may take his slaves within 
its bounds, and there hold them or sell them, 
without anylaw specially giving him such licence. 
There is, in principle, no real difference between 
this proposition and that which I have just con- 
sidered. 

The proposition is objectionable for another 
reason : that while it in terms applies to the ter- 
ritory south of the line 36° 30', yet inasmuch as 
it is put forward as involving a just principle of 
compromise, it requires no prophet to see that 
further acquisitions of territo'y in that direction 
will only renew the present disturbances, and 
as the agitators will claim their settlement on 
like terms, we will easily persuade ourselves 
that the principle of what was esteemed a set- 
tlement in 1861, might with fairness be applied 
to all such additions to our domain to the south- 
ward. 

It is said that New Mexico has already estab- 
lished slavery by a territorial law, and we are 
therefore only invited to recognise an existing 
fact ; we all know, sir, that the law was enacted 
at the request of a member of this House by 
outside influences, S'^ch as sought to introduce 
it into Kansas ; but if the fact were otherwise, I 
deny the right of a few people in New Mexico, or 
any number of people in any Territory, to make 
a slave of any man. They may have the mere 
brute force to accomplish it, but they are without 
the right ; and so long as I have a seat here, they 
shall have no such permission by any vote of 
mine. And, sir, in support of this view, I voted 
last year to repeal the obnoxious laws of New 
Mexico, by which not only the slavery of black 
men but of white men is secured. We reserved 
the right to repeal her laws in her organic act, 
and I will not consent to yield. that right. 

The proposition to admit New Mexico as a. 
State is not acceptable to me for many reasons. 
If she were here to-day asking admission as a 
State, I would vote against her, with a free or a 
slave constitution. She has never asked foil ad- 
mission. Her population is confessedly insuffi- 
cient, as all accounts that I have as yet seen have 
not placed her population of American citizens 
beyond seven hundred ; while Mexicans, half- 
breeds, and all, do not amount to more than; 
sixty thousand. It seems to me unjust to. the 
old States to admit into the Union a State with- 
out population enough to entitle her to a member 
of Congress, and yet give her one member and 
two Senators. But that objection has increased 
weight when the population has so recently been , 
citiaens of a foreign nation, and therefGre with- . 
out that training in the principles of our Consti- . 
tution which fits our people for the I'osponslbili- 
ties of free government. A great body af. her 
people, we learn, are Mexicaa, peons ^srjiitp 



8 



slaves — men who have been sold to pay their 
debts. I think it would be better to await the 
pi:ogress of these people to a point where men 
are better thought of. The introduction of this 
"peculiar institution"' will not go far to allay 
the trouble which springs from the other " pecu- 
liar institution " — the perpetual fountain of bit- 
terness and strife ; and therefore, 1 feel disposed 
to retain the Territory in apprenticeship yet a 
while longer. The object is to remove a bone of 
contention. I do not believe that one man in a 
hundred has had his thoughts upon New Mex- 
ico from the beginning of these troubles. The 
real trouble has been the offices. A leading se- 
cessionist of the Senate, a day or two since, 
declared that, if Lincoln and Hamlin wouldje- 
sign, the troubles would end. That, sir, is the 
true secret of our mischief. It Is not the bare 
dry bone of New Mexico, but the fat pastures, 
where the Democracy have browsed, are the ob- 
jects of solicitude to those of them who rebel 
against the will of the people. 

The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Garnett] 
has thought that it was the true policy of Vir- 
ginia to secede, because in her present connec- 
tion she would hold a subordinate place, whilst 
she would take the lead in a Southern confede- 
racy. Has Virginia any special policy she can 
expect to promote there that she cannot here ; or 
is it even supposed that she will shape the course 
of the present confederate States ? She hardly 
prepares herself to lead in a confederacy hj fol- 
lowing others. South Carolina goes out because 
she cannot lead the Confederacy of thirty-four 
States; and it is difficult to suppose that she will 
be content to follow in one of seven or eight. 
She will have herown way, and notwithstanding 
it is the present policy to conceal it, one of those 
ways is a highway to Africa, over who^e bloody 
track men and women shall be torn from their 
homes, and consigned to bondage. For that expe- 
dition I see their sails spread, with the Palmetto 
boldly emblazoned on the escutcheon; while in 
its corner, scarce legible, ^^ Sic semper t>/rannis" 
will tell yju bow Virginia will have fallen. 

Sir, I believe there is too much home-bred 
sense in the border States to give up the ad- 
vantage of our fathers' Union; and your ac- 
tion, one way or the other, with regard to New 



Mexico, will scarcely be thought of by them. 
So far as our territorial policy is the occasion 
of this strife, I see its removal without a resort 
to the legislation proposed. I see it in the 
ordinary legislation for the Territories. All 
those which we have yet to organize will un- 
doubtedly be free, and we will consent to or- 
ganize them without any provision respecting 
slavery; I would not introduce, needlessly, a 
cause of complaint, however groundless, into 
those territorial bills. Without standing on a 
ceremony, we have already organized Colorado 
in that way. Let us do likewise with the rest; 
and then every community within our juris- 
diction will be organized, so that we may 
hope to be at peace, so long as the Federal 
Government does not, by its officials, seek to 
force it on the people. And danger from that 
source has been averted by the election of Mr. 
Lincoln. 

Mr. Speaker, I have necessarily omitted many 
reasons which constrain me to vote against 
these measures ; and in so acting, I am sensi- 
ble of no influence, except from a sincere desire 
for the welfare of all the States of this Union. A 
different course might secure the approval of 
friends whose favor I esteem, but I could not 
secure my own approval. It might shield me 
against reproaches fiom others, which, while I 
might regret them, I know, nevertheless, how 
to bear them; but I could not fly from self- 
reproach, which no man can bear. 

I cannot tell what troubles may be in store 
for our country if we, by timid counsels, yield to 
the madness of the times. We cannot see far 
out into the future; for Heaven, in mercy, has 
veiled it' from our view, and when we try to 
pierce it, the imagination is apt to rove, and con- 
jecture, to forget all bounds. But I believe his- 
tory Will write of these things in the roll of her 
book; she will spread it before the nations, and 
they will read therein our lamentations and our 
woes. But let us have a mild, just, yet Orm, ad- 
ministration of the Government, and this chaos 
will give place to order, the wilduess of anarchy 
will oe subdued by the pressure of law, and the 
people, unburdened of their fears, will be glad as 
is one awakened from a dream full of dangers to 
.the assurance that it was but a dream. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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WASHINGTON, D. C. 

PRINTED AT THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN OFFICE, 
1861. 



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